June 14,2024 The sector regulator has amended some regulations to broaden the scope of a fund used for running activities relating to telecom consumer education and protection. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday amended regulations 6 and 13 of the Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund (TCEPF) principal rules to enable utilisation of the fund for expenses relating to preparation, maintenance, audit of accounts, and for the participation of representatives of consumer groups attending meetings of the Committee for Utilisation of Telecommunication Consumers Education & Protection Fund (CUTCEF). The regulator, though, dismissed telcos’ call for tapping the TCEPF corpus for conducting consumer education workshops, saying operators are already arranging such consumer outreach programs regularly to improve customer experience as mandated by Trai. It also rejected industry demands for increasing the representation of telecom service providers in the CUTCEF, saying the current telco presence in the panel is adequate. Trai has also rejected telco demands of tapping the TCEPF corpus to compensate them for mandatory text message alerts, saying that such services were meant to be given free of charge to mobile users. In an accompanying explanatory memorandum, Trai said that back in 2020, Corporation Bank, in which the fund (read: TCEPF) is maintained, had been merged with Union Bank of India. Further, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, had been repealed by the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Accordingly, amendments have been made to change the relevant provisions in the principal regulations. Source: Economic Times

June 28,2024 New Delhi: A deemed university is not a “public authority” which is covered in the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act unless it is under the control of or is financed by the government, the Delhi High Court has said. The court’s order was passed on a petition by an RTI applicant seeking information with respect to the details of students, including roll number, name and father’s name, who completed MSc in Chemistry through distance learning from 2007 and 2011 from Vinayak Mission University, a deemed university. The chief information commissioner (CIC) refused to provide the information on the ground that the institute was not a “public authority” and the data pertained to its internal administration. Stating that there was no reason to interfere with the decision of the CIC, Justice Subramonium Prasad noted that the RTI Actdeals with entities, including non-government organisations, which are owned, controlled or substantially financed by the government and merely because a university has been deemed to be a university, it would not be considered a public authority under the act. “It is not the case of the Petitioner that the Respondent University is either a government authority or a non-government organisation which is substantially financed by the government, either directly or indirectly. The Respondent No. 3 university, thus, cannot be held to be a ‘public authority’ under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act and will not be amenable to the provisions of the RTI Act,” the court in its order said. “It has also been recently held by a Full Bench of the Bombay High Court…that merely because a university has been deemed to be a university by virtue of a notification under Section 3 of the UGC Act, it will not be considered a public authority under the (RTI) Act,” the court recorded. The petitioner contended that being the custodian and a “public authority”, UGC should be held to be duty bound to supply the information to him. The court, however, observed that the information sought by the petitioner was “personal” in nature and exempted under the RTI Act, and he has also not shown any material to indicate what was the public interest that would outweigh the concerns of privacy. “In the absence of any larger public interest justifying the disclosure of such information, this court is not inclined to accede to the information sought for by the Petitioner,” it opined. “This court, therefore, does not find any reason to interfere with the decision of the CIC denying to give information as sought for to the petitioner on both accounts i.e., the respondent university being a deemed University is not a public authority in the absence of any material advanced by the petitioner to show that the respondent university comes under the direct control of the Government or financed by the Government, and secondly, the information sought for will result in unwarranted invasion of privacy of all the individuals concerned and without there being any larger public interest involved which will outweigh the privacy of the persons whose information has been sought for,” the court held. Source: Economic Times

June 28,2024 NEW DELHI: To prevent alcohol-related road incidents, the government has come out with a draft rules to ensure the accuracy and reliability of breath analyser equipment used by law enforcement agencies to measure alcohol concentration from breath samples. The Legal Metrology Division of the Department of Consumer Affairs has unveiled new draft rules for evidential breath analysers under the Legal Metrology (General) Rules, 2011, according to an official statement on Friday. As per the draft rules, which have been placed on the website for public comments until July 26, evidential breath analysers need to be verified and stamped according to the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, to ensure their accuracy. The Legal Metrology division has proposed that all the evidential breath analysers should be verified and stamped before sale/ putting into use. The equipment which are already in use need to be verified and stamped within one year. The draft rules would come into force from the date of publication of this notification in the Official Gazette. The department said that this verification of the analysers protects individuals from wrongful penalties due to faulty equipment and helps maintain the integrity of legal and workplace policies. “This initiative aims to ensure the accuracy and reliability of breath analysers used by law enforcement and workplaces, thereby enhancing public safety and trust,” it added. The Verified and standardised evidential breath analysers would accurately measure blood alcohol concentration from breath samples, ensuring that intoxicated individuals are identified swiftly and effectively. This would help prevent alcohol-related incidents on the road, contributing to safer travel for everyone. “The new rules require evidential breath analysers to follow standardised testing procedures, ensuring consistent and reliable results across different devices. This standardisation fosters public confidence in the fairness and accuracy of enforcement actions,” the department said. Evidential breath analysers provide a non-invasive way to measure blood alcohol content, offering quick and painless sample collection. The rapid analysis capabilities allow law enforcement officers to make swift, informed decisions, enhancing the effectiveness of roadside checks. “The availability of stamped and verified evidential breath analysers to the public can raise awareness about the effects of alcohol on impairment and the legal limits for safe operation of vehicles and machinery. This encourages responsible behaviour and informed decision-making,” the department said. The draft rules define “evidential breath analyser” as an instrument that measures and displays the breath alcohol mass concentration of exhaled human breath within specified error limits and is applicable to those types of evidential breath analysers that use mouthpieces for sampling the breath. The rules provide for various types of tests to ensure, the correctness of the instrument. The yearly verification will ensure the accuracy of this instrument during use. The draft rules have also outlined several technical requirements for evidential breath analysers, such as displaying only the final measurement result; the inclusion of a printer to record results and ensuring the device does not operate without paper. The proposed rules also necessitate providing additional printed information along with the blood alcohol concentration result as well as reporting results in different formats, such as blood alcohol concentration in blood. The new draft rules represent a significant step towards improving road safety and enforcement reliability. “By ensuring that evidential breath analysers are accurate, standardised, and easy to use, these rules will benefit the public through better enforcement, increased safety, and enhanced trust in legal and workplace alcohol testing,” the department said, adding that it remains committed to safeguarding public welfare through rigorous standards and reliable measurement instruments. Source: Economic Times

June 05,2024 New Delhi, Certain sectors including beauty products, personal care, consumer electronics and consumer durables may face a tempering of growth, according to a report from consulting firm Deloitte. The decline is on account of the high volume of purchases post-pandemic that have created a high base for FY25, according to Deloitte’s “Future of Retail” report. The report also highlighted a significant shift in consumer spending patterns with a rise in value-seeking buyers, which is evident across consumer businesses. While the consumer may increase their spending on leisure activities, suggesting a good performance for the aviation and hotel industries in FY2024-25, it added. “Yet the growth in premium products has outpaced entry-level products in several sectors, including electronics and personal care. Companies will benefit from understanding the preferences of their customers for premium products and using them to drive growth,” it said. Based on the survey, the report said a large section of customers across sectors reported that replacement purchases would be a significant driver for purchases in FY25. It has suggested the companies “capitalise on this trend to retain their loyal customer base and encourage replacements where product performance or perceived value of products is expected to improve by replacement or upgrades”. The report further said Indian retailers can achieve an incremental growth of between 8-20 per cent by sweating their investments in customer, product, channel and experience despite a plateauing demand scenario. The key challenge and opportunity for retailers would be to grow like-for-like businesses by maximising the potential of existing assets and investments. “In our experience, through the execution of the right interventions, businesses can achieve incremental like-forlike growth ranging between 8 to 20%,” it said. Source: Economic Times

June 19,2024 Last quarter’s robust economic momentum, which lifted India’s GDP to a world-beating 8.2% rate of expansion in FY24, has continued into the first quarter of the current fiscal, buttressed by several growth drivers, (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das said Tuesday. “April and May are over. At Reserve Bank, we have data for June also… we see the momentum is well-sustained and we are, therefore, quite sanguine and optimistic that the (growth) projection we have given for the first quarter of this year – at 7.3% – will indeed be 7.3%,” Das said at an event organised by television channel ET Now on Tuesday. He said several indicators provided evidence of resilient growth momentum, including higher demand for consumer goods in rural areas and a resumption of much-awaited- evidenced through an increase in the size and number of fixed assets. Das also expressed optimism in India’s external metrics, saying that the current account deficit for the previous year could potentially narrow to less than 1% of GDP. “In the first three quarters of 2023-24, the current account deficit was 1.2% (of GDP),” Das said. “Our teams are working on the fourth quarter numbers. They look to be even lower, and when you look at the annual current account deficit number, I will not be surprised next week when we publish the current account deficit numbers – they could be even lower than 1% (of GDP),” he said at the ET Now event. While emphasising India’s firm growth trajectory, Das said there was no room for complacency on inflation, given that the last mile of bringing consumer prices firmly down to the RBI’s 4% target was turning out to be “sticky, arduous and very slow.” Consumer Price Index inflation was at 4.75% in May. Pointing out that food inflation has been near 8% for six to seven months, Das said supply-side factors and extreme weather events had exerted an impact on food prices. In response to a query on when the RBI may change the current monetary policy stance of withdrawal of accommodation, Das emphasised the balancing act the central bank was playing on growth and inflation. “If you expect a faster moderation of inflation, then we have to take much more drastic measures in terms of stance, in terms of rate,” Das said. “But then we have to also weigh what will be the growth sacrifice that we would be making.” Speaking at the same event, Dinesh Khara, Chairman, State Bank of India (SBI), said the ability to source deposits across geographies and products will be the key differentiator for banks, going ahead. “There cannot be an excess liquidity situation. The RBI has maintained adequate liquidity in the system,” Khara said. “Our ability to source deposits across geographies and across multiple products is going to be the differentiator.” The bank will expand its asset book in green financing to make up 7.5% of such loans in its advances by 2030, Khara said. He expects the bank’s return on assets to improve to 1.10% by the end of this fiscal, from 1% at the end of March 2024. Khara reiterated that the bank has enough capital to ensure a 20% growth in loans. “In the past few years, we have ploughed back ₹1.10 lakh crore from profits and our CET 1 ratio is the highest in a decade. At the current levels we can grow our loans by another ₹7 lakh crore, or 20%, so capital is not an issue. The bank has built enough muscle for growth,” Khara said. Common Equity Tier 1, or CET1, is a protectionary capital measure introduced last decade to prevent banking collapses through precipitate business cycles. Source: Economic Times

June 24,2024 New Delhi, Observing that there was negligence and deficiency in services by the Indian Railway, a consumer commission here has directed its general manager concerned to pay more than ₹1.08 lakh to a passenger whose luggage was stolen during a journey. The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission was hearing the complaint which said the passenger’s bag containing valuables worth ₹80,000 was stolen by some unauthorised passengers in January 2016 between Jhansi and Gwalior when he was travelling in a reserved coach of the Malwa Express. “It was the duty of the railways for safe, secure and comfortable journey as well as safety and security of belongings of passengers,” the complaint said. The commission, comprising its president Inder Jeet Singh and member Rashmi Bansal, said it had the territorial jurisdiction to try the case as the complainant boarded the train from New Delhi and there was “a continuity of the journey” till its arrival in Indore. Besides, the office of the opposite party was situated within the commission’s jurisdiction, it said in an order passed on June 3. The commission rejected the argument of the railways that the complainant was negligent about her belongings and that the luggage was not booked. Noting that the complainant was made to “run from pillar to post to register an FIR”, the commission said, “The manner in which the episode has happened and valuables were stolen followed by the efforts of the complainant to get the FIR registered with the authorities for appropriate enquiry or investigation, she suffered all kind of inconvenience and harassment to pursue her legal rights.” It said the complainant had established her case against the Indian Railway for negligence and deficiency in service as her belongings kept in a bag were stolen during her journey against reserved ticket. “Had there been no negligence or deficiency in services on the part of the opposite party or its staff, there would be no such incident. There is no other defence or evidence to deny the value of the articles being carried by the complainant during her journey, therefore, the complainant is held entitled to reimbursement of loss of ₹80,000,” the commission said. It also awarded her ₹20,000 as damages for suffering inconvenience, harassment and mental agony besides ₹8,000 towards litigation cost. Source: Hindustan Times

June 24,2024 An advertisement is considered misleading when it misleads people from reality and influences their behaviour toward purchasing a product or service from the market. Recently, the Supreme Court took a step to stop misleading ads by advertising agencies. As per the Indian Medical Associations & Anr. Vs. Union of India & Ors. 2022, Advertising companies must provide a self-declaratory certificate to the competent authority before any content (Advertisement) is displayed, as per the Supreme Court’s directive. Now, advertising agencies and media have to file a self-advertising form to ensure that the content is not misleading in any way. On June 3, 2024, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in compliance with a Supreme Court directive, announced new regulations requiring a self-declaration certificate (SDC) to be submitted before the publication or broadcast of any content. This mandate, effective from June 18, 2024, stipulates that all advertising agencies must file their SDCs via the Broadcast Seva Portal managed by the Ministry. Meant for print and digital media, the SDCs are to be give in to through the Press Council of India’s portal. Ads play a pivotal role in establishing a brand in the market. However, they become problematic when they contain false information and manipulate customers’ emotions by providing misleading information about the brand. An evaluation done through the Advertising Standards Council of India in the year 2023-24 on 8,299 advertisements found that around 81% fell into the category of misleading advertisements, with 94% of the infringements identified through proactive monitoring. Online platforms also play a crucial role in spreading misleading advertisements because a large population is connected to social media and consumes content through fake news articles or social media posts. Influencers and celebrities in India also spread misleading advertisements. A survey conducted by the community media social media platform LocalCircles found that during the pandemic, an average of 70% of Indians encountered misleading advertisements through social media or various online sources. After watching these advertisements, they often purchase the products or services of the particular brand being advertised. Patanjali claimed during the COVID-19 pandemic that its medicine “Coronil” was sufficient to cure COVID-19 and was certified and approved by the World Health Organization. However, later the WHO denied this claim and criticized it. Following this, while attacking the medical pharma industry, Patanjali made claims about several diseases, asserting that its medicines were sufficient, well-suited, and could cure them completely. Patanjali’s dispute began in 2022, when the company ran a poster named “Misconceptions Spread by Allopathy: Save Yourself and the Country from Misconceptions Spread through the Pharma and Medical Industry.” In this advertisement, Patanjali claimed that its medicines are scientifically proven to cure various diseases and asserted that allopathic medicine has severe side effects. Following this event, the Indian Medical Association sent a 1000 crore defamation notice under Section 499 of IPC (Indian Penal Code 1860) in the month of May 2022. After this, the Indian Medical Association filed a petition before the Supreme Court about the disparaging advertisement in August 2022. In the first hearing in November 2023, the Supreme Court warned and threatened Patanjali against using terms like “permanent relief” in the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, 1954, to sell its products. Earlier, Patanjali gave assurance that they would not publish such misleading advertisements in the future. This undertaking was recorded by the court in its order. However, the company continues to publish misleading advertisements related to medicinal cures. Upon prima facie observation that Patanjali has infringed on the undertaking, the court issued a contempt of court notice for violation of court order and asked them to file a reply within two weeks. The court also cautioned them against making any statements adverse to any system of medicine in any form. After the company failed to respond to the contempt of court notice, the Supreme Court issued a summons on March 19, requiring Baba Ramdev and Balkrishna to appear personally before the court. On March 21, Balkrishna, the company’s managing director, issued an unequivocal apology. The supreme court warned Baba Ramdev and Balkrishna about disobeying the law and scolded them for their “absolute defiance” in failing to file a suitable affidavit in response to the deceptive ads in a follow-up hearing on April 2. The Supreme Court rejected their apologies and directed them to provide an affidavit within a week. On April 15, the apex court suspended the manufacturing licenses of 14 products of Patanjali Ayurvedic Ltd. and Divya Pharmacy under Rule 159(1) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1954, with immediate effect, and ordered the Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority to file an affidavit by April 29. The apex court judgment on 7 May 2024, in this case is significant since it directed the Centre to notify all advertising companies to give in a self-declaration certificate prior to broadcast any type of advertisement online or in print. Additionally, celebrities and influencers are equally liable for promoting and endorsing misleading advertisements online. This case played a pivotal role in strengthening current regulations and striking against various giant companies that mislead consumers in the name of authenticity. This case opened the door for legislation to frame new rules and guidelines to tackle real-world problems and protect consumers’ rights Source: Livelaw

June 29,2024 Nagaland State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NSCDRC) in collaboration with Nagaland State Bharat Scouts & Guides organised an awareness programme on consumer rights at State Training Centre, Nerhema, Kohima on June 29.  Justice S Hukato Swu President, NSCDRC delivering the introductory speech opined that consumer is not only confined to what we eat but embraces overall problems, be it related to exorbitant prices or to health related issues and concerns every citizen.  Consumer court is placed in each and every district and easily available to help the public, he said and informed that there are no fees levied for commodities below 5 lakh and are edible in nature and one can approach for medical issues and medical negligence.  Swu said that Consumer rights commission in an important part of the state because it concerns every concern citizen who in turn is the consumer. He called the young people to become advocates and spread awareness on this meanwhile added that anyone can write or file a complaint related to consumer issues.  Speaking about present scenario, Swu emphasised on how some business platforms run online operates fraudulently. He further added that the commission is ready to help the public and address such issues. He mentioned the importance of creating more awareness for the public to know their rights and responsibilities as everything is commercialised. Advocate Sunjib Rana speaking on E-Commerce: Liabilities & Mediation highlighted that service at home has become so much convenient but on the other hand it also invites so much of inconvenience and problems because of online scams and frauds.   He called customers to be aware of their rights and what the product is offering. Verbal complaints are just word of much of mouth when we do not have awareness on how to file a complaint, he said.  Rana said a free services provided by the consumer disputes redressal commission are here for the people adding that it is not about the amount of what we buy rather than how well informed we are. Advocate Apila Sangtam providing an overview of the Consumer Act 2019 stated that The consumer protection act 1986 now 2019:107 sections on several provisions provides for better protection of the interest of consumers and for that purpose to make provisions for the establishments of authorities and for the settlement if consumers disputes and the matters connected therewith.  Sangtam highlighted the Rights under the act, 2019 which include Right to safety, Right to be informed, Right to choose, Right to be heard Right to redressed, Right to consumer awareness.  She also highlighted that in some reliefs or remedies includes Removal of defects from the goods, Replacement if goods, Refund of price paid, Compensation of loss or injury suffered, Removal of deficient service and Stopping the sale of hazardous goods. Advocate Sentiyanger Pongen spoke on Medical Negligence pointed out that there are many cases where there are malpractices and wrong medical procedures but many are neglected and these issues needs to be met and compensation and support should be provided. Pongen also highlighted that services from a company or corporation can also be addressed and also cautioned consumer to be careful while using electronic gadgets and be more careful with advertisements. Source: Morungexpress